Upcoming
Maryland Retreat
From $ 1645 usd
+ available add-ons
Join Whale Rock faculty for a week of writing and community
Join Whale Rock Workshops faculty for our first-ever writing retreat. Make lifelong writer friends with this six-day, five-night getaway. Faculty and writers will cook together, eat together, walk together, laugh together, and of course write together.
Our home away from home is the lovely Caboose Farm, a 200-acre event venue located in Sabillasville, Maryland, not far from Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg. The countryside property offers rustic charm, modern amenities, walking paths and yes, a caboose.
What To Expect
Our week includes:
- Two optional writing exercises daily
- Two one-on-one meetings, each with a different instructor
- Daily writing time
- Communal meals
- Evening gatherings
This Retreat Is For You If
- You are drafting or revising a novel OR working on a series of picture books
- You need or want dedicated time to work on a project
- You feel like you’ve been writing in a vacuum and you seek community
- You are on a deadline and need to make progress on your project
- You’ve lost momentum on a manuscript
- You’ve only met Whale Rock friends and faculty online, and you’d love the opportunity to connect in person
*NOTE: There is no submission required for this event.
Faculty
Your faculty for our Maryland includes Gary Schmidt, Shelley Tanaka and Kathryn Erskine will be your hosts.
Important Details
Lodging
Students will share the multiple houses on the property for sleeping and writing. Each house is different, but comes with the usual bedrooms, bathrooms, living room, and kitchen.
There are three types of accommodations with some variables:
- Private rooms and shared bathrooms in the hall. (Within this category we have a few basement rooms (lovely, just below ground level) and we have two "lux" private rooms with a shared bathroom and a shared small den space. This is ideal for two friends traveling together.)
- Private rooms and private bathrooms.
- There is one twin room, which can be shared by two friends to bring costs down.
**Contact us for an adjusted price if you would like to share a queen or king room with a friend or if you would like to take a full house with friends. (Sofa beds are an option for groups renting an entire home.)
Food
Breakfast: Students are responsible for their own breakfasts. There is a Wegmans grocery store 20 minutes by car from the retreat site, and we encourage students to stop on their way. There is a local grocery store that delivers by instacart as well. We can also help with groceries for students flying in.
Lunch: We will provide the food, and students will take turns preparing the meal with faculty members. This experience is a blast and a great way to bond with our faculty.
Dinner: Dinner will be delivered by local restaurants and caterers each night.
Wine: Wine is welcome! (This retreat is BYOB.)
Lunch: We will provide the food, and students will take turns preparing the meal with faculty members. This experience is a blast and a great way to bond with our faculty.
Dinner: Dinner will be delivered by local restaurants and caterers each night.
Wine: Wine is welcome! (This retreat is BYOB.)
Refund & Payment Policies:
- There is a $500 non-refundable deposit. Tuition must be paid in full by August 30, 2025. Students who register after August 30 must pay in full.
- Students may only withdraw before September 1, 2025, on a case-by-case basis if there is another student on a waitlist who can fill that spot.. Refunds will be returned in full, minus deposit and administrative costs.
- LAST MINUTE ILLNESS POLICY: As of 2023, there will be no exceptions to our refund policy for students who become ill at the last minute. Students will be given access to classes from our virtual library that they can watch at a later date. Students will also be able to schedule one-on-one meetings with faculty at a later date.
PLEASE NOTE: We continue to give tremendous thought to your health and safety as well as the health and safety of our staff and instructors. We have chosen a location with a great deal of outdoor space, but we recognize that it is November. For the safety of our instructors and attendees, everyone will be asked to exercise caution for two weeks prior to our workshop.
Model
This is predominantly a writing retreat. You will have quiet writing time through lunch each day. After lunch we will offer an optional writing prompt and then you may continue writing in the afternoons. We will come together for lunch and dinner and evenings will be spent together—gathering and chatting. Of course, meetings are optional if you’re in a writing groove. Each participant will have two, 30-minute one-on-one meetings, each with a different instructor, where participants can bring pages, discuss projects, etcetera. Writers will come away, we hope, with more pages written, editorial guidance and a community of writer friends.
Workshop Size
A minimum of 12 students a maximum of 16
I We have almost 50 writers on the waitlist for this event. Registration will be first come, first serve. Once we hit 16 students we will open a waitlist for another 16. If we have 14 writers on the waitlist we will run a second event the following week with the exact same faculty and the exact same format.
Instructors
Gary Schmidt
Founding Faculty Member
Kathryn Erskine
Shelley Tanaka
Contact us
- Shari Becker
- in••••o@wha••••s.com
- 617-833-0720
Location
Sabillasville, MD
Classifications
Categories
- Manuscript Complete
- Manuscript in Progress
- Manuscript in Development
- Community Building
- Self Care for Writers
- In-Person
Levels
- Emerging Writers
- Intermediate Writers (not yet published)
- Published and/or Agented Authors